Israel Forfeits Final World Cup Game, Won't Play on
Sabbath

OSHAWA, Ontario -- While the headlines at the
Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) Women's World Cup have,
as always, belonged to the Americans and other top nations
jockeying for position at the top of the bracket, one of the
sub-stories has been the solid play of Team Israel, a first-year
program that went 4-1 in pool play and trailed by just two at
halftime against Canada.

As the sun set Friday night, however, their tournament was done,
as the team has opted to stick with its decision not to play on the
Jewish Sabbath, which goes from sunset on Friday to sunset on
Saturday.

"We just made this decision early as an organization," said
Scott Neiss, Israel Lacrosse's executive director since its
inception in 2010. "A large portion of [Israel's] population, this
is something that's important to them. It's not a religious issue,
it's a national identity issue."

The Ministry of Sport for Israel allows individual teams and
athletes to make their own decisions about whether or not they
choose to play on the holy day.

The Federation of International Lacrosse rescheduled a pool play
game for Israel that had originally been planned for Saturday, July
13, allowing them to play Hong Kong on Monday – an off day
for both teams – instead of forcing a forfeit. For the
tournament's final day, however, the FIL declined to allow either
of the alternatives to playing a scheduled Saturday game that
Israel had suggested – playing their final placement game on
Friday evening before sunset or Saturday evening after sunset.

Moving a placement game to Friday evening would have required
both Israel and its opponent to play two games in one day, which is
against FIL bylaws. Moving the game later on Saturday would have
required the game be played after the gold medal game, which is the
official close of the tournament, possibly during the
post-tournament banquet that occurs Saturday evening.

When asked about the Israeli decision to forfeit its placement
game on Friday, an FIL official stated that the organization was
sticking with its decision to accommodate the pool play round but
not the final game, but declined further comment.

It's an unfortunate end for a team that played better than many
would have expected. Of the newcomers to the World Cup, Israel won
more games than Sweden and Latvia combined, advancing to the
quarterfinals and playing Canada tough in the first half before the
host pulled away in the second half.

"We're very proud of this team. What they've achieved and how
they've bonded is just incredible," Neiss said. "We really achieved
all our goals, to come here for the first time and finish in the
top eight. That's just incredible for a first-time team."

The goal going forward for Israel Lacrosse, according to Weiss,
is to build from the ground up in Israel and bring an entirely
home-grown team to the European Championships in two years. Right
now there are approximately 100 players based in southern Israel,
with approximately half of the national team hailing from the
country and the other half based in U.S. Their ultimate goal is to
bring some of those players back to Israel to coach and help grow
the game among the children living in the country rather than rely
on American ex-pats with Israeli ties.

"That's one of the great things about this time – the
girls are inspired," Weiss said. "We have some of them that aren't
Israel-based already committed to coming and living in the country
for a year and helping coach, and that's going to help us develop
the sport faster."